The present invention relates to a device for connecting a floating object to a moorage structure and particularly to a fiberglass mooring device for mooring a vessel to a dock, pier, or moorage float.
Floating objects such as boats, vessels, or platforms are traditionally moored alongside moorage structures such as docks, piers, or floats by use of mooring lines and resilient fenders. However, when a floating object is moored to a moorage structure using traditional devices, during severe or stormy conditions the floating object, the moorage structure, or both are generally subject to damage. Fenders placed between the floating object and the moorage structure as a buffer are easily dislodged or otherwise are insufficient to prevent damage. Further, where currents, storm waves, or wakes of passing vessels cause significant or prolonged relative movement, traditional fenders may rub the surfaces of the floating object and cause considerable damage to the paint or other surface finish.
Another problem with traditional devices for attaching floating objects to moorage structures is the necessity to adjust conventional mooring lines in response to tidal rise and fall of the water with respect to the moorage structure. No such adjustment is needed when the moorage structure is a float which is free to rise and fall on the tide. Even with floats, however, it is sometimes difficult to limit movement of a floating object to the extent desired without undesirably straining mooring lines when the floating object moves relative to the moorage structure in response to storm waves or wakes of passing vessels.
Mooring whips are one type of device used to connect a floating object to a moorage structure. These whips consist of a highly flexible straight rod or pole which is securely and permanently fastened to a moorage structure. Whips are an improvement over other devices in that they allow for adjustment in heights due to tides. However, because a mooring whip is essentially straight when it is not connected to the floating object, it must be highly flexible so that it can be bent manually to connect its free end to the floating object. This high degree of flexibility, however, often allows too much movement of the floating object which can then come in contact with the moorage structure and thereby cause damage under severe wave or wake conditions. Another problem with mooring whips is that they are generally permanently installed on moorage structures and are not portable to enable their use in connecting a floating object to alternate moorage structures having no permanently installed mooring whips.
What is needed, then, is a mooring device which, although resiliently yieldable, is much less flexible than a conventional mooring whip and is of simple, inexpensive construction, capable of quiet operation and adaptable to floating objects of differing heights. The mooring device should be usable either in combination with or independent of conventional mooring lines to control movement of a floating object with respect to a moorage structure with sufficient resilient resistance to prevent contact between the moorage structure and the floating object under severe conditions. The mooring device should also be portable and attachable to any moorage structure.